Name Awesome

Magdalen

#7,356 in 2025Girls' name

Woman from Magdala, through Magdalene

Magdalen has been given to 3,267 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #7,356 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1915, with 92 recorded.

Babies named Magdalen, 2025

1 in 221,000

Magdalen over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Magdalen: meaning, origin, and history

Woman from Magdala, through Magdalene

Hebrew

What Magdalen means

Magdalen belongs to the name family reached through Magdalen → Magdalene. Its meaning is “woman from Magdala”.

Origin, language, and formation

Magdalen is used in English. Its origins include Hebrew.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Magdalene.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Magdalen is pronounced /ˈmæɡdəlɪn/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,267 girls were recorded with the name Magdalen between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 92 in 1915; its best national rank was #506 in 1887.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #7,432 in 2020 to #7,356 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,812 in 2015 to #7,356 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Magdalen?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 221,000
15 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 107,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#7,356
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
153,194 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Magdalen sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 153,194 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Magdalen. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Magdalens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Magdalen was born before 1928 — so the typical Magdalen is around 97 today.

Median birth year
1928
About 97 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
17.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
18.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,193
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 17.7% of all recorded uses (579).

Is Magdalen rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+3,415
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+76
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,544
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.52×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
16.3%
Peak was 1915 (92)
Years since peak
110
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
36.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#506
1887

Spellings of Magdalen

Magdalen is not the most common spelling — Madalyn is, with 36.8% against Magdalen's 5.2%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Magdalen is used

Across 1910–2025, Magdalen was most concentrated in North Dakota — about 1 in 8,333 girls, against 1 in 149,841 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

012 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Dakota1 in 8,333
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 33,333
  3. 3Pennsylvania1 in 50,000
  4. 4Wisconsin1 in 50,000
  5. 5Illinois1 in 100,000
  6. 6New York1 in 100,000
  7. 7Ohio1 in 100,000
  8. 8California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Magdalen has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Magdalen around the world

Where Magdalen ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2018
    #4,684
    in 2018
  • France
    1984–1984
    #3,364
    in 1984
  • Canada
    2000–2007
    #3,117
    in 2007
  • South Australia
    1964–1967
    #650
    in 1967

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Magdalen

People whose public names include Magdalen, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Magdalen in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Magdalen. Linked forms have their own page here.

MagdaMaddalenaMadeleineMagdalenaMagdaleneMagdolnaMagdaléna

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Magdalen by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#7,356
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 76
Best rank ever
#506
1887
Peak year
1915
92 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,267
Count in 2025
15

Names similar to Magdalen

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MagaliMagdalynMagdaleneMagnoliaMagalyMagdaJoellenMagdalenaMagdalineMagaleneJaylenMagalineSuellenMarlenMagentaGwendolenMaryellenBraylenMagenKaylenMagdalynnMagdelineMaganHellen

Names with a curve like Magdalen

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Magdalen, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

GrayceEvelineJossieEdaElvinaLeraVivaRubieMadieMadalineQueenieEulalia

Sibling names for Magdalen

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Magdalen

Top names of 1915, Magdalen's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1887Girls' names starting with M